Your Name and Title: Kate Blalack, Digital Repositories Librarian and Associate Faculty
Library, School, or Organization Name: Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
Co-Presenter Name(s): None
Area of the World from Which You Will Present: United States
Language in Which You Will Present: English
Target Audience(s): Academic librarians, archivists, digital scholarship librarians, library administrators, and information professionals exploring AI in library work.
Short Session Description (one line): When AI claims to map knowledge, who decides what the territory really is?
Full Session Description:
Artificial intelligence tools are rapidly entering research environments, discovery systems, and digital collections workflows within libraries. While much attention has focused on “AI literacy" and ethics, information professionals, librarians and archivists are increasingly encountering a deeper question: how should libraries responsibly integrate AI into systems that shape knowledge access and interpretation? How do we overcome fear?
This presentation explores the idea that “the map is not the territory”—that algorithmic representations of knowledge cannot fully capture the complexity, context, and ethical considerations embedded in library collections and information systems.
Rather than focusing only on fear or skepticism around AI, this session encourages librarians to move toward a more thoughtful engagement with how these systems actually work. In particular, it highlights how prompts function as the instructions that draw the lines on the map—shaping what paths appear visible, what knowledge is emphasized, and what information may remain hidden.
Drawing from practical experience delivering AI literacy workshops and engaging in conversations with researchers and library staff about emerging technologies, this session will explore:
• How AI models represent knowledge and where those representations diverge from human context and expertise • How prompting shapes AI outputs and influences the “maps” of information users encounter • Why moving beyond fear toward critical engagement with prompting and AI systems is essential • The continuing role of human judgment in metadata creation, collection stewardship, and knowledge mediation
Rather than positioning AI as either a threat or a solution, this presentation invites the audience to consider philosophically how human expertise, ethical frameworks, and institutional values remain essential in shaping the future of AI-enabled knowledge systems.
Attendees will leave with practical ideas for facilitating conversations about AI within their own libraries and for helping researchers understand how the prompts and assumptions guiding AI systems influence the knowledge landscapes they produce.
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